Saturday, June 2, 2012

June 5: A Day of Justice for Trayvon!

June 5 will be 100 days since George Zimmerman, a vigilante, wannabe cop murdered Trayvon Martin. 100 days since Zimmerman racially profiled Trayvon, stalked him and gunned him down. Now we are being told that it’s time for us to get out of the streets and let the justice system work. This is BS! The system was working when it let Trayvon’s murderer go free. It took weeks of people all over the country taking to the streets in outrage to force the authorities to arrest Zimmerman and charge him for murdering Trayvon.

People need to stay in the streets demanding justice for Trayvon. It will take continued mass resistance to have any chance to get justice in this case.

innocence; torture-like conditions faced by those in prison and former prisoners forced to wear badges of shame and dishonor after they’ve served their sentences. It is way past time to say NO MORE to all of this.

June 5 must be a day of mass resistance! Wear your hoodies, and make stickers and posters saying “WE ARE ALL TRAYVON, THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY!” Get this message everywhere. Take it to the high schools. If you’re in college and your school will be out of session by June 5, take this message wherever you will be on that day.

When you add up the numbers of those facing racial profiling, those warehoused in prison and those who are discriminated against after they leave prison and combine that with the families and loved ones of all these people, you get a reality of tens of millions of people living lives that are enmeshed in the web of the criminal “injustice” system. On June 5 and beyond, we need to break the silence on all this and end the shame. Tell your story of being abused at the hands of the cops, the courts and in prison. Spread the slogan,

People From Across Chicago Converge to say NO to Mass Incarceration!
-- Chicago Police Murders Fuel Local Action--

Chicago 4/19 -- Representatives of Occupy El Barrio and Occupy 4 Prisoners will join local poets, clergy, as well as activists in the cases of victims of Chicago police shootings such as Flint Farmer, Rekia Boyd, and Ricky Bradley, to initiate a nationwide movement to combat mass incarceration.

People everywhere, including local Chicago churches such as Wellington Avenue UCC, have delved into the problem of mass incarceration, greatly assisted by the best-selling book, "The New Jim Crow," by Michelle Alexander. The Trayvon Martin murder and recent arrest of George Zimmerman have galvanized the public nationwide, and people in Chicago have all become aware of the violence against people of color through high-profile cases such as the police shooting of Flint Farmer. The community has come together around the need to protect immigrants from persecution, incarceration, and deportation, particularly with resistance to the erection of an ICE facility in Crete, IL. Several weeks ago, approx. 500 people gathered at UIC for the "Forced Out" conference on deportation and incarceration. Local advocacy groups such as the Community Renewal Society are aggressively pursuing campaigns to reverse the consequences of mass incarceration and stigmatization of people with records. Occupy the SouthSide has initiated a campaign to "Stop the American Genocide (STAG)."

The Stop Mass Incarceration Network has called for a National Day of Action to Stop Mass Incarceration on Thursday, April 19th. These national actions has everything to do with, and joins with, the upsurge associated with this “Trayvon Martin moment.”

On April 19th everyone who is concerned about injustice will join in saying — NO TO MASS INCARCERATION! There will be rallies and demonstrations in cities across the country, from New York to Houston, to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. College and high school students will hold teach in’s and other actions on their campuses. There will be cultural events held on that day. And the architects and enforcers of mass incarceration will be challenged over the inhumanity of the policies they are inflicting on society. Why? Because,

More than 2.4 million people, most of them Black or Latino, remain warehoused in prisons across the country;
Black and Latino youth are treated like criminals by the police and the criminal justice system, guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive their encounters with police to prove their innocence;
Former prisoners wear badges of shame and dishonor even after they serve their sentences — discriminated against when applying for jobs, denied access to government assistance, not allowed in public housing, denied the right to vote.

In a short statement being released and circulated nationwide, it declares:

“It is time and way past time to stand up and say NO MORE! Our youth are being treated like criminals—guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive to prove their innocence. The vigilante murder of Trayvon Martin concentrates the racial profiling that leads into more than 2.4 million people being warehoused in prison and the millions more who are treated like second-class citizens even after they’ve served their sentences. April 19th must be a day of standing up and saying NO MORE to all of this. Join us to organize a day of teach ins and rallies in high schools and colleges; a day of youth, tired of being demonized, taking to the streets—joined by many others from different backgrounds, races and nationalities who stand with them; a day of speaking bitterness to the way the whole criminal justice system abuses millions of people. All saying in a powerful voice: NO to mass incarceration and all its consequences.”

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The next public meeting of the Chicago Police Board is scheduled for Thursday, April 19, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. at Olive Harvey College, 10001 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. This meeting will take place in Chicago Police Area South, which includes the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th & 22nd Police Districts.

Members of the public are invited to attend and are welcome to address questions or comments to the Police Board. The Superintendent of Police (or his designee) and the Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority (or her designee) will also be at the meeting.

Prior sign-up is required of those wishing to address the Board—contact the Board's office at 312-742-4194 by 4:30 p.m. of the day before the meeting to add your name to the list of speakers. In addition to receiving input from the community, the Board reports on disciplinary actions and other matters, and receives a report from the Superintendent.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Check out this powerful new video on the Stop Mass Incarceration campaign, with "Sorrow Tears and Blood" by Fela Kuti in the background while harrowing statistics about this racist New Jim Crow system of slow genocide parade before your eyes. Spread the link, please, and see you at 5 pm Thurs at Federal Plaza, Chicago, to Stop Mass Incarceration!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority is a piece of the process that justifies & propagates the criminalization and mass incarceration of Black & Latino people, assisting in the cover-up of egregious crimes by Chicago police.

The Independent Police Review Authority is known by the acronym IPRA. Don't the facts suggest that IPRA really stands for:

Indiscriminate
Police
Rampage
Authorization

??

You decide ...

IPRA by the numbers*

Police shootings – 2007 to September 2009: 138, fatalities – 44(there were at least 7 more police involved shootings in 2009 after September, including at least 3 fatalities)

IPRA findings of Police misconduct from closed investigations: 88(only 32 of which were citizen complaints, the rest being police complaints against police, domestic violence complaints against Police, and procedural complaints)

One thing is certain – if you are a cop, IPRA’s got your back!!

*Information from IPRA’s website and IPRA’s published reports as of Jan 2010; updated totals incorporating 2010 and 2011 data currently being prepared.

A look at the human side
The numbers above give the cold statistics. But statistics can’t begin to convey how cold IPRA really is. Imagine the pain of the families of people killed by the police when IPRA won’t even tell them the name of the cop or cops who did the killing!!

CASE STUDY: Corey Harris
Corey Harris, 17 years old, was a basketball star at Dyett High School. Interviewed on television, his varsity basketball coach said, “He had natural leadership abilities and we had high accolades for the kid. We thought he was going to be a tremendous asset for us, not only on the team but in the school as a whole.”
In September of 2009 Corey Harris was shot and killed by an off duty cop. According to witnesses at the scene, this cop had initially fired indiscriminately into a crowd of youth fleeing from a shot fired in a fight. The cop then chased Corey, who – by the police’s own admission was unarmed – down an alley and shot him in the back. Four months later IPRA hasn’t even taken the officer’s testimony or released his name.

CASE STUDY: Aaron Harrison
In August of 2007 Aaron Harrison was shot in the back and murdered by a cop on Chicago’s west side. That shooting came less than a week after police had beaten Lester “Roni” Spruil to death in the same area and sparked a small uprising in the neighborhood. Shortly afterward, with much fanfare, the creation of IPRA was announced. Aaron’s case would be its first high profile investigation.

March 6, 2009 IPRA released its report. After interviewing numerous witnesses who testified that Aaron had no gun IPRA focused on the testimony of a single alleged witness who, when stopped by police for a narcotics investigation, told them he had information that could help them in the shooting case around Aaron. He claimed to have seen Aaron with a gun earlier on the day he was shot. He is alleged to have described how he had brought this information to a local preacher who told him to keep quiet about what he knew.

IPRA never interviewed the preacher to corroborate the story. In fact IPRA never even interviewed the witness. Instead they relied on reports of interviews by police detectives and reports from the discredited Office of Professional Standards describing the existence of this witness and his testimony. When speaking, under oath in the wrongful death suit brought by Aaron’s mother the “local preacher” testified that he had never met such a person. And IPRA had never asked him.

In addition to this mysterious witness who cannot be found, IPRA’s report on the shooting of Aaron describes a DNA report on matter found on a gun that was “recovered at the scene.“ Though Aaron’s finger prints are nowhere to be found on the gun (and remember, Aaron was murdered in August so it isn’t like he was wearing gloves) the DNA report “doesn’t rule out” Aaron. In further analysis, presented in the wrongful death trial IPRA’s DNA results are refuted.

The IPRA investigation of the Police murder of Aaron Harrison exonerated the police using two pieces of evidence to trump the testimony of numerous witnesses and other physical evidence. The two pieces were the questionable testimony of a witness who may not even exist and ambiguous (and later discredited) DNA analysis.

CASE STUDY: Oscar Guzman

In April of 2009 Oscar Guzman, a 16 year old with autism, was standing outside his families restaurant on 26th street when police, thinking he “fit the description” of a suspect stopped to question him. Unable to answer their questions he fled into the restaurant where the police caught him and, despite the families entreaties, beat him over the head with metal batons. In December, 8 months later, IPRA responded to a lawsuit Oscar’s family was filing with a written statement announcing it would “not sacrifice the thoroughness of an investigation to meet a timeline.”

With IPRA things have gone from Bad to Worse
Since IPRA replaced the old Office of Professional Standards (OPS) the previous policy of removing police involved in shooting incidents from the streets while the investigation is pending has been eliminated. Now police are back, leering and threatening the community, the day after they kill. But which of them even did the shooting? There’s no way to know unless one witnessed them at the scene and read their name tag. Because IPRA keeps that information deeply hidden, along with everything else, objectively hampering any effort to get some measure of justice for the victim. Lawyers for families seeking redress for the wrongful death of their loved ones describe how very, very difficult it is to get crucial information out of IPRA – even with a subpoena!! And two years after the fact IPRA is still stonewalling on many investigations.

Freddy Latrice Wilson, a rapper know as “the Saint” was gunned down by police outside the studio where he recorded – shot 18 times – on September 28, 2007. IRPA is still investigating.

Johnny Goodwin, 21 years old, was waiting at the bus stop for his mother to escort her home late in the evening of August 22nd, 2007. Undercover cops jumped out of a car, chased him down and shot him to death. No IPRA finding has been released on the case.

Meliton Recendez, 15 years old, was shot to death by police September 28, 2007. There is no report on that at IPRA’s website.

Johnathan Pinkerton, 16, was shot in the back by police on June 11, 2007 and paralyzed from the waist down. His mother has heard nothing from IPRA for more than two years. IPRA has issued no finding.

These are only 4 out of 127 shootings IPRA is still sitting on. Truly IPRA has the Police’s back!!

A system where police not only regularly beat, brutalize and kill people, but which invents “Independent” authorities to defend those very actions has long outlived its historical usefulness!

Monday, April 9, 2012

About a thousand people participated in Chicago Spring actions on Saturday, April 7, starting in neighborhoods throughout Chicago in the morning, and converging for teach-ins, training, and networking in Grant Park in the afternoon, followed by a meal and GA at "The Horse" at Michigan and Congress in the evening.

Occupy the Southside held a program in the morning as part of its "Stop the American Genocide (STAG) campaign. It showed a film about the Rwanda genocide, and then held a discussion about mass incarceration, the New Jim Crow, and the genocide facing people of color in America today.

Occupy El Barrio held a rally at the Metropolitan Corrections Center (MCC) against ICE detention and other forms of mass incarceration. The marches from the other neighborhoods converged with them at the MCC, and then they marched on to Grant Park together.

Members of Occupy 4 Prisoners held a teach-in on mass incarceration in Grant Park.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

I am writing you on behalf of the “Stop Mass Incarceration Network” at CSU Northridge. Some of you may be aware that April 19th marks the day of national action Against Mass Incarceration and social injustice. With the recent incidents involving Trayvon Martin and the police shooting that resulted in the death of Kendrec McDade, an unarmed black college student in Pasadena, California, we are more convinced than ever that there is an abundance of dangerous racial profiling in the country that is, and has, resulted in the unnecessary deaths of minorities.

These same marginalized people are being stored in prison units all around the country. Our prison facilities house more than 2.4 million people! most of whom are Black or Latino. This is not coincidental. Racial profiling plays a large role in who ends up in the prison systems. Trayvon Martin, Kendrec McDade, and the millions of minority prisoners are all a part of the latest chain of outrages perpetrated, condoned, and covered up by our law enforcement system.

This kind of racial profiling is what leads to the kind of horrific numbers of people who are warehoused in prisons across the country, and millions more who are treated like second class citizens even after they have been punished and served their sentences. Our youth stands no chance against this system, which is designed as a pipeline to prison.

As Students, we have a civic duty to stand against these kinds of injustices and step out in Resistance to Mass Incarceration! We would like to invite you to join scores of campuses nationwide on April 19th by holding rallies, teach-ins, walk-outs, sit-ins, or marching out into the community, to say that we are tired of being demonized and being treated like criminals.

Please organize with your campus leaders to join us in saying “NO” to Mass Incarceration and ALL of its consequences!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Demonstrations are being planned around the country for April 10, the day a grand jury is scheduled to be convened in Florida to review evidence in the killing of Trayvon Martin and decide whether to indict the killer.

Participate in the action near you, and invite your friends EVERYWHERE to participate in one near them.

PLEASE HELP US REACH OUT
Many youth are in motion around Trayvon Martin and the issue of Mass incarceration very much intersects with incidents like that. If people know schools or have gone out to schools, know students, teachers or principals at schools they could reach out to please take initiative around that and post the responses you are getting.

So far there is one high school where the teachers are making a proposal to do a poetry slam around amass incarceration theme. This is an alternative high school, with three sister schools they want to bring in to this. These school have been active in the past around the Oct 22nd National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality.

At another high school, the principal said he would talk with the social studies teachers about doing something around the 19th. He feels this is a very important question among his students. Many of them feel they will be in jail or dead by the time they are 18.

Nancy Michaels, Associate Director of the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation (for identification purposes only) signed the national statement.

We want to utilize the Carl Dix speech at Riverside Church, “Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide.” There are several opportunities for showings of this talk around Chicago that we are pursuing.

We also want to reach ministers and have some ministers put out a call to other churches to take this up -- to have Speak outs/teach ins, etc. Two churches in particular that would be important to encourage to get behind this initiative would be Trinity and St. Sabina. And it would make a difference for Jerimaiah Wright and Father Phleger to sign the statement in their own right. We are setting an appointment with people from the Archdiocese of Chicago Office of Anti-Racism next week. Ministers we met at recent marches for Justice for Rekia Boyd and Ricky Bradley on the West Side have expressed interest in taking this up and want to talk more about it.

We are also reaching out to the many groups that came together around “Occupy for Prisoners.”

It was suggested that we get to the Campaign to Stop Evictions. There have been initial conversations with some people in that group.

UPCOMING EVENTS FOR OUTREACH
Please let us know (stolenliveschi [at] gmail.com) what events you might go to and work with us to do outreach:

April 7 is Occupy Chicago’s big spring “return to the streets” event. Various events and times

A major conference on Deportations and Incarceration Thursday, April 5, 10 to 2am UIC Student Center East

Add your story to the"Bear Witness: Life in the Age of Mass Incarceration" Tumblr page. This is a space where you can submit your videos and share your stories of harassment by the cops, and treatment by the system -- to paint a complete picture of the genocidal actions and character which characterizes the system of mass incarceration. Bear witness to crimes against the people!

BACKGROUND (from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network)
This country imprisons more people than any other country on the planet. On Thursday, April 19th, everyone who is concerned about injustice must join in saying -- NO TO MASS INCARCERATION -- in a loud voice. There must be rallies and demonstrations in cities across the country. College and high school students must hold teach in's and other actions o n their campuses. There need be cultural events held on that day. The architects and enforcers of mass incarceration must be challenged over the inhumanity of the policies they are inflicting on society.
A lot of important work has been done on this front. Michelle Alexander and others have done a lot of exposure of the horrors of mass incarceration. Prisoners, activists and others concerned about injustice, including a number of prominent have been involved in building resistance to this problem. It is crucial that this resistance be taken to higher level -- NOW.
We must do this because:

2.4 million people, 60% of them Black or Latino, are held in prisons across the US.

Racial profiling practiced by police and courts serves as a pipeline to these horrific numbers.

People in prison are subjected to torture-like conditions.

The formerly incarcerated face discrimination, even after they've served their sentences.

We must do this now because in this very political time -- with the presidential elections heading into full swing -- the horror of racially targeted mass incarceration is being hardly mentioned. And when it does come up, it is raised only to call for even harsher measures. Only our independent mass action can puncture this atmosphere -- putting this injustice forcefully before society and challenging everyone who is concerned about justice to take a stand.